New Tender to construct a Hotel in the Israeli settlement of East Talpiot

On the 3rd of April 2016, the Israel Land Authority published on its website a tender to construct a hotel in the illegal Israeli Settlement of East Talpiot, which is located at the southern part of Jerusalem city.

The Tender No. S/49/2016, aims to construct a new hotel in the “Armon Hanatziv” neighborhood in the Israeli settlement of East Talpiot.

According to the tender. (S/49/2016 – rent land reserved for hotels), Israel Land Authority called to sign a development contract for three years, and then to sign a rent contract for 49 years with an option to extend it for another 49 years.

The details about the tender No. S/49/2016 is as follow[1]:

Furthermore, the aforementioned tender to construct the hotel is a part of a proposed Israeli plan  holding No. 4711, to construct 6 hotels with 1330  rooms and a resort in addition to road network and open areas, in the aforementioned neighborhood, on area reach to 73.671 dunums of land. More than that , the plan (No. 4711) including also, the construction of conference rooms in these hotels and meeting rooms, where several kinds of the organizations can hold their meetings and conferences in this proposed new hotels.

The Israeli Plan No. 4711 includes the following:

The Hotel and Tourism areas will include  the following:

It’s worth to mention that on the 25th of January 2015, what is so-called “Israel  land Authority” published the tender No. S/148/2014 to construct hotels in Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in East Telpiot settlement, at the southern part of Jerusalem city. The tender includes the building of hotel complexes in Bloc. No. 30152 (lots No. 1,3 and 4). Where the total cost of the project is NIS 15,797,764. [2]

As a matter of fact, these types of colonial projects have a dramatic consequences over the tourism sector runs by the Palestinians in the Eastern part of the city of Jerusalem and in the nearby Palestinian towns and cities especially Bethlehem. On the other hand, the proposed Israeli project will serve the Israeli settlers in East Talpiot settlement and ,virtually, the entire settlement project in Jerusalem.

The illegal Israeli settlement of East Talpiot established in 1973 at the southern part of the old City of Jerusalem, and its occupied about 1894 dunums of Palestinian land. The population of the Israeli  settlers in the 2015 estimated  to 17,000 settlers.

To sum up:

All types  of the Israeli settlement projects in all parts of the oPt including the eastern occupied part of Jerusalem are illegal and constitute a grave breach for the International law rules and conventions:

The existence of the Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and their expansions are Illegal and contradicts with the international law rules, United Nations Security Council Resolutions such as 237 (1967), 271 (1969), 446 (1979), 452 (1979) ,465 (1980).

Resolution 446 March 22, 1979 calls on Israel to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories"

Also the resolution 452 of the 1979 “calls upon the Government and people of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction and planning of settlements in the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.”

Furthermore the Fourth Geneva Convention also states in Article 49 that “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.” and Article 174 of the same convention “prohibits the 'extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”

In May 2001, the head of the International Red Cross delegation to Israel and the Occupied Territories said that settlements are "equal in principle to war crimes". (Note: "The transfer, the installation of population of the occupying power into the occupied territories is considered as an illegal move and qualified as a 'grave breach.' It's a grave breach, formally speaking, but grave breaches are equal in principle to war crimes", Rene Kosirnik, head of the ICRC delegation to Israel and the OPT, press conference 17 May 2001).

Article XXXI of the 1995 Oslo agreement Israelis forbidden from building or planning to any project or settlements or any colonial expansion or any plan that lead to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The article provides “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”.

References:

• http://www.land.gov.il/PirsumMichrazim/Aspx/image.aspx?misMichraz=%20492016%e9%ed&misRatz=1
• https://poica.org/details.php?Article=7635

[1] http://www.land.gov.il/PirsumMichrazim/Aspx/pirsumDetails.aspx?id=%20492016%E9%ED&rc=1&tr=7

[2] http://www.land.gov.il/pirsummichrazim/aspx/pirsumdetails.aspx?id=1482014&rc=1&tr=1

Prepared by:  
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem